


running into the night the earth is shaking

by nex_et_nox



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-07 13:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6806353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nex_et_nox/pseuds/nex_et_nox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompts for Flashvibe Week 2016</p><p>Day 1: Spies/Secret Agents -- Cisco had honest to god petitioned to have the R&D division officially named Q Branch early on and had been amusedly but firmly denied.<br/>Day 2: Celebrities -- "Cisco, what the <i>hell</i>?" Dante demanded as soon as Cisco picked up the phone.<br/>Day 3: Soulmates -- "My vision grayed out," Barry said numbly, not even seeming to notice what he was saying. His eyes stayed on a fixed point in front of him, disbelieving.<br/>Day 4: College/University -- "Dude, what are you doing?" Cisco asked, flicking on the light to their dorm room and catching Barry in the act of trying to slip out of their window.<br/>Day 5: Fake Dating/Marriage -- "He's my best friend, my partner. Please, I have to see him," Barry said, desperate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Spies/Secret Agents

“Do you have the building plans up?” Barry asked, almost at the site.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing,” Cisco said, slightly distracted. Barry could hear the faint tap of keys from his suit’s comms. “Yes, I do.”

“Great,” Barry said, skidding to a halt in an alleyway just up the street from the building he was supposed to be sneaking into. He peered around the edge, looking for guards—

There, there, and there. This would be a little tricky, then. Lightning trailing behind him wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. However, ARGUS had assigned him this mission because no one else based in Central City could get to Colorado quickly enough, nor could they speed into the building, grab the files ARGUS needed, and get back out like he could.

“Got it!” Cisco cheered. “These people had terrible cyber security, damn. I’m almost disappointed. You’re going to be making your way to the third floor, right hand side—”

“Are we in a Harry Potter novel?” Barry asked skeptically.

Cisco cackled, then cleared his throat in a way that meant someone had probably just walked up behind him. “Should be the…ninth door.”

“All right,” Barry said. He watched the guards for a few seconds more, judging it, eyeing the door, and then he was gone, easily passing through the break in their patrol and into the building itself.

Not even an _alarm_. Cisco was right, this was sad.

Up to the third floor, ninth door on the right, grab the files, get gone.

“I’m in the clear and on the way back,” Barry said into his comms.

“See you soon,” Cisco said.

 

Barry handed in the files to his supervisor, grabbed a bunch of the souped up calorie bars ARGUS kept on hand specifically for him, speed-wrote his report, changed into civvies, and ran back to his apartment. Cisco was already there, watching something on TV.

“Hey,” Barry said, throwing himself down on the couch. Cisco twisted so that his back against the arm of the couch, his legs landing in Barry’s lap. “What are we watching?”

“Skyfall,” Cisco said absently, his gaze already focused back on the TV. Barry didn’t take offence; Q was making his first appearance onscreen, and Cisco _loved_ Q. He also loved making jokes about _being_ ARGUS’ Q, which was – really accurate, actually.

He’d made Barry’s suit. He’d made or helped work on a lot of the assistive devices for other metahumans working at ARGUS. He did all sorts of amazing, wonderful things and pretty much ran the R&D division.

Cisco had honest to god petitioned to have it officially named Q Branch early on and had been amusedly but firmly denied. Barry knew, he had been there the day Cisco was writing up the request. He had also seen the memo Director Michaels had sent back down, the one Cisco later framed and hung in their apartment.

Barry had been working for ARGUS since the summer before his junior year of college. It had only been part-time then, but ARGUS was always looking for promising new people to recruit, and he ended up being carefully offered training and a part-time while he finished his degree. Barry hadn’t been sure what he wanted to do with his life – it was between becoming a CSI, or working at STAR or Mercury Labs if he could get in – and he had figured it couldn’t hurt to at least have job experience before he went out into the world.

Of course, he had ended up loving it, loving the people in it and the things that they did. He loved being a field agent, too, which was what he had ended up becoming after he had graduated and been fully inducted into the agency.

A few more easy years working for ARGUS, getting to know other agents, striking up friendships with people in the R&D division, and then—

The particle accelerator explosion. The lightning. The nine month gap in his life.

ARGUS had been with him through the aftermath, helping him as it had helped all its effected agents get back on their feet, learn about their powers, and deal with the consequences not just for them, but for the whole of Central City.

Cisco had been there for him during that time, too.

Cisco, who was currently busy quoting Q’s lines under his breath in sync with the film. Barry couldn’t help the fond smile. He settled in to watch the movie, knowing he’d have to get up in a half hour or so to make himself more food, but at the moment he was too content in enjoying his boyfriend’s warmth and presence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cisco is already aware of his powers and going by the codename Vibe if/whenever ARGUS has to send him out into the field as backup. He's usually content working as Q -- especially given his vibes, which are _so helpful_ \-- but doesn't oppose going out on missions sometimes if they really need him. 
> 
> I also posted all the backstory of this on my tumblr last week [right here.](http://sovietsuperspies.tumblr.com/post/143725881065/barrisco-secret-agent-au)


	2. Celebrities

Cisco had been Vibe, named and powered, for almost a year by the first time he had gone out in public as the For Real Deal Superhero Vibe, costume, goggles, and all.

(That was a lie. The first time was that final fight against Zoom, and he hadn't had any armor then, just a ratty sweatshirt with the hood up to tuck his hair in as they made their way through the streets, his backup three speedsters and hope curling desperately in their chests. He didn't like to talk about that, though.)

He had _wanted_ to team up with Barry. They had talked about it extensively in the aftermath of Zoom and getting Caitlin back – Catilin, whose roots had been turning white and lips darkening blue since the moment she had returned to them – and practiced together, working on Cisco's offensive skills. The vibrational blasts Cisco could throw from his hands still terrified him, still made him fear that one day he really would turn into Reverb, but Caitlin was making her way through being a metahuman and Cisco had helped take down Zoom without accidentally-on-purpose killing him in the process as revenge for _everything_ he had done. Cisco considered that a tentative success, and Barry nudged his shoulder playfully sometimes and made comments about there being no Sidious around to feed him bullshit about the power of the Dark Side, so he was perfectly safe.

"Does this make you Padmé or Obi-Wan?" Cisco finally asked one day.

Barry considered that. "Probably Padmé," Barry said, "considering the thematic appropriateness of falling to the Dark Side trying to protect someone else."

Cisco blushed furiously, because he had expected an easy Obi-Wan answer, and even Barry couldn't have missed that he had just relegated himself the role of Anakin's – admittedly badass – _wife_.

Judging by the sly grin taking up Barry's face, he knew that as well.

So things were – happening there. And he was still working at CCPD and on Team Flash, except he was planning on going into the field himself. As soon as he made sure his training was up to snuff. And his costume. And it was a day that he could go out with Barry as a teammate in case he made any missteps.

(He might have been putting it off. Sue him.)

When the day came, however, Barry wasn't there. He was out in Starling City, working with Team Arrow on something, and it would take him almost an hour to get back even if he ran at top speed. Central City need help _now_.

Cisco made his superhero debut all by himself.

 

Dante was the first to call him. Caitlin likely would have been the first, but she had known what he was doing since the beginning. She had instead chided him gently as she patched up the ugly scrape to his side.

"Cisco, what the _hell_?" Dante demanded as soon as Cisco picked up the phone.

"Hello to you, too," Cisco said, and then hissed in a sharp breath as Caitlin finished taping the bandages on, probing at them to make sure they were secure and accidentally pressing too hard against the edges of the damage. _Be careful with your side_ , she mouthed at him. He nodded.

"You're all over the news," Dante said. "I thought you said visions! Two months ago, you said you had _visions_."

"I do have visions," Cisco said, disgruntled. "I just can do other stuff too. Apparently."

"And now you're going out into the streets and picking fights with other metas—" Dante started.

"I know what I'm doing," Cisco bit out, curling in on himself. "I helped take down Zoom and I've been training with my powers for the past two months, so don't get on my case about this, okay? I can take care of myself."

A long pause. "All right," Dante said softly. "I just – be careful, mijo."

"I am," Cisco promised. He laughed. "I was supposed to go out with the Flash the first time, just to get used to everything, but he's out of town right now."

"Go with him next time," Dante said. Then: "You really are on the news. Everyone expected the Flash to show up, but some random meta in a colorful outfit showed up instead and didn't stick around to answer questions."

"Oh, no," Cisco said. "Paparazzi are not something I'm getting involved in!"

 

Paparazzi were something Cisco was having to deal with. He probably should have seen that coming. He lived in _Central City_ , home of the Flash. The Flash, who was the local superhero, who had a drink named after him at Jitters, who'd had the key to the city handed over to him.

Hanging out with him and teaming up against supervillains should have made it obvious in retrospect that the paps would focus on him. He couldn’t speed away like Barry could, and he wasn't like Firestorm, who had been known as the urban legend Burning Man before suddenly disappearing and only reappearing – to most peoples' knowledge – during the Singularity, and then again after Jax and Professor Stein had combined to create the new Firestorm. The Burning Man hadn't exactly made a stellar reputation for himself.

Vibe, on the other hand, had come out of nowhere and was obviously comfortable working with the Flash. He didn't have any weird history tripping him up. He also didn't vanish for months at a time. Cisco lived in Central City; he could take a break from being Vibe for a while if he wanted, but if something started going wrong and he was nearby, or if Barry couldn't take a case, or if it was something that Barry, Jesse, and Wally couldn't handle themselves, he would pitch in.

In Central City, where the superheroes were almost more of celebrities than actual actors or musicians working within the city, Vibe attracted a lot of attention very quickly.

 

"Iris, please, _please_ , let me give you this interview and get everyone off my back," Cisco begged.

"Nothing will get some of those people off your back," Iris said, not unsympathetically.

“ _Please_.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to do it!” Iris laughed.

“You are goddess among mortals, _thank you_ , Iris,” Cisco said, grabbing her hands.

She grinned. “You can ask Barry, though,” she said. “It doesn’t stop with only the one interview.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Superheroes are kind of celebrities in their own right, aren't they...?
> 
> I kind of ran out of steam towards the end of this, and it was already a day late, so here it is.


	3. Soulmates

Iris hadn't felt like she had been able to breathe since the moment that she was given the news her father was missing. Taken by Mark Mardon. Then the phone call from the selfsame man on her father’s phone, telling her to meet him on the waterfront; Barry coming with her; running through the park trying to find him, thunder building overhead.

_Where is he?_

Iris didn't know which he she was even referring to, her dad or Mardon – both of them would be in the same place, she hoped, but she didn't know. She couldn't breathe.

"It's going to be okay," Barry said for at least the third time, meaningless platitudes as his eyes raked the park and the waterfront. She knew he was just as desperate to find Joe as she was, so she ignored how she wanted to snap at him for trying to tell her that. He wanted to believe it just as badly as she did.

They kept moving.

_Please, please—_

It was the only thing running through her head, a constant refrain.

Barry suddenly made a soft, wounded noise beside her. The duffle he had been carrying thumped out of his hand. Iris followed his line of sight, trying to see what had caused that pain, afraid that she would see her father's body lying there.

But there was nothing.

"Barry, we don't—" Iris started, fresh tears sliding down her face. _Have time for this_ , she almost said, but the look on her brother's face stopped her. "Barry?" her voice wavered. "What's wrong?"

"My vision grayed out," Barry said numbly, not even seeming to notice what he was saying. His eyes stayed on a fixed point in front of him, disbelieving.

Oh, God. Iris covered her mouth with one hand. She had met Cisco; she _liked_ him. She would even say she loved him, for the way that he made Barry's eyes light up and his grin go wide and goofy.

Thunder rumbled, hard and demanding, and movement on the water drew Iris' eyes. She thought at first it was only the blur of tears, but no. The water was moving, a tsunami building steadily.

"We have to leave," Iris said soundlessly, reaching one hand out toward Barry. She couldn't tear her gaze away from the wave. They wouldn't be able to escape in time.

Barry seemed to snap back into himself for just a moment, a broken expression still covering his face, and he dug into his pocket for his phone. Iris wasn't really listening to the conversation; she couldn't, over the despair and fear filling her mind like white noise.

Barry hung up and grabbed her hand with one of his own. "I am so sorry," he said, voice choked with grief that didn't show on his face now. He had it buried under the brittle mask he needed in order to function, the one that he had used as a child and the one that had vanished almost entirely with the entrance of Cisco into his life. "I didn't want you to find out this way."

Then the Flash was in front of her where Barry had been standing; everything made sense suddenly, and Iris was running away, because there was nothing else she could do.

 

Barry thought it was a trick of the light for a few seconds. He'd been staring at the clouds and the water, the heavy weight of them pressing against the waves, and it had seemed like the clouds had faded into the water for moments. An optical illusion. Barry blinked. It was still there, and the color of the world all around him – the trees, the patches of sky still hanging on the edge of Mardon's clouds, the path beneath their feet – had all gone away, too.

He had grayed out.

_Cisco._

He somehow managed to answer Iris’ question, to pull himself together enough to call Caitlin – avoiding telling her about Cisco’s ( _don’t think it don’t think it, that makes it real_ ) – to ask her what to do ( _Cisco, he should be asking Cisco, but Cisco was—),_ and then he was running, grief trailing behind him. He couldn't feel the joy and heat of the lightning; it burned cold against him, nipping hungrily and gluttonously because it knew he could never outrun this despair.

Barry knew it, too.

All he had now was the determination that no more people would be taken from him. He would stop this tsunami. He had to. There were no other options.

He _had_ to.

Barry raced back and forth, back and forth, only focusing on his footfalls, on the strength of the wall he was building against the wave, not on his own grief, because if he did, he would falter and fall and let everyone die.

Barry screamed, lightning arcing and twisting around him as he pushed himself forward with another burst of speed, because he couldn't stop now—

Suddenly, he was somewhere else. The reflection ran beside him, wavering and surprised, and then it was gone in a twist of sparking yellow lightning untinted by his own anguish. Barry skidded to a halt.

The colors were back.

He could _see colors again_.

“Oh my god,” Barry said, a sob and uplifted prayer.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Cisco asked in his ear. The world was upright and centered once more and Barry didn’t think before he was turning around, running straight back to STAR Labs. To his heart.

“Dude,” Cisco said, spinning around in his chair as Barry arrived in the Cortex, lightning still arcing over his boots and the gloves he was tearing off his hands. He approached Cisco with shaky steps, unable to believe it, but he could see all the colors around him. Barry cupped Cisco’s cheek with one hand, desperately feeling it: warm, alive.

“Um,” Cisco said, darting a sideways glance at Dr. Wells, but he leaned into Barry’s hand a little nonetheless. “I repeat: what’s going on?”

“You’re okay,” Barry said, reverent.

“Yeah, Barry, you saw me not even five minutes ago,” Cisco said.

“My vision grayed out,” Barry said. He knelt, his legs no longer able to support him. His hand trailed down, landing on Cisco’s knee and feeling the heat of his body through the gloriously _blue_ pair of jeans Cisco had on. “You were gone.”

Cisco blinked, hard. “You – what? Seriously, I’ve been here, in the Cortex, since you left _five minutes ago_. I’m definitely _not_ dead.”

“I think,” Dr. Wells said, rolling closer to them, “that the two of you are having separate conversations, or there is something that we’re missing here. Barry. Explain, if you will?” He steepled his hands, staring at Barry over the rim of his glasses.

“I think I time traveled,” Barry said, unwillingly turning to look at Dr. Wells. He glanced back toward Cisco almost immediately, but not before he caught the faint flutter of surprise that flashed across Dr. Wells’ face.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Cisco said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I love the first words soulmate AUs and those are usually what I want to write/read, but why do that when I could write colors and ANGST.
> 
> I kind of want to continue this later on, maybe expanding it into a chaptered fic or something. Feat. such hits as "Wait, so I really did die then?"; in light of Barry's recent time travel adventures and revelations therein re: what happened in the aborted timeline, maybe these nightmares aren't just nightmares; Cisco graying out when Barry is attacked by BEES; Barry graying out _again_ when Cisco gets stung (their lives are honestly terrible); and the classic hit, this blue wave of destruction is blue, blue, blue until suddenly it's gray and Barry can't breathe for how fast he's running and the grief that fills his lungs and wants to drag him down, but he has to trust in the ghost-self he saw yesterday and run until he's back, until he can see glorious color again and save them all this time.


	4. College/University

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just pretend it makes sense that they have their powers when they're in college. I love superheroes having to juggle school and superpowers. It's one of my weaknesses. Kind of based off/definitely influenced by [this beautiful post](http://sovietsuperspies.tumblr.com/post/140664802930/flashvibe-roommates) by [greenglowsgold](http://greenglowsgold.tumblr.com).
> 
> Also, how is this my longest response to a prompt so far...? I thought I wasn't going to do much of anything with it, but here I am, 2000 words later.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Cisco asked, flicking on the light to their dorm room and catching Barry in the act of trying to slip out of their window. Their window that was on the third floor.

"Probably...not what you think I'm doing?" Barry said. He edged backward a bit more. Cisco narrowed his eyes and Barry froze.

"I don't know what I think you're doing, but I'm pretty sure it's against university and dorm policy for you to be going out the window," Cisco said. "Is this why I never see you coming or going? Why don't you just use the _door_ , like a normal person?"

Barry mumbled something under his breath but climbed back in. He resettled his backpack and walked quickly past Cisco, out the door and into the hallway. He slipped through the door to the stairwell, right across from their room, and saluted Cisco cheerfully as the door swung shut behind him.

Cisco rolled his eyes, but he was glad that Barry was gone. He'd just received an alert on his phone about an attack downtown and Vibe needed to make an appearance.

 

"You're late," Flash called out teasingly as Cisco arrived at the scene.

"My roommate was being weird," Cisco said, ducking under the Flash's lightning bolt and throwing his own sonic blast into the mix, a combination they'd realized worked particularly well, because even if the lightning missed, whatever criminal they were up against would likely be temporarily blinded and not see Vibe’s attack coming. Unless they ran up against a blind supervillain, Cisco figured they were probably going to be able to use this trick ad infinitum.

"Oh that's right, you got a new one this year," Flash said, and then he was rushing over to see if their enemy was out. He was, and Flash slapped a pair of cuffs on him and then appeared back at Cisco's side as if he'd never been gone. Cisco might not have noticed either, but he'd been working with Flash for almost two years now and he could kind of feel Flash's powers skittering along his own sometimes. In a pleasant way. Not _that_ kind of pleasant way, just – ugh. He sounded like Overwatch. "How's it going so far?"

"We only just moved in together like a week ago, man," Cisco said. He could hear sirens in the distance; he wasn't sure if Flash could yet, but Cisco had long since perfected the art of searching out specific vibrations in the air, and sirens were a particular one that he had focused on distinguishing early on.

Flash hummed, a particularly strange noise with the trick he always pulled with his vocal chords. Cisco did something a little similar; he couldn't directly vibrate his vocal chords like he suspected the Flash did, but he could alter the sound waves after they were out of his mouth. Vibrations, man. So many different tricks you could pull with them.

And yeah, Cisco had complained about his roommate last year to Flash. They'd been working together for almost a year at that point and Cisco had come storming to a crime in a temper. Flash had asked him quietly after the fact if he was okay, and Cisco may have vented to him about it. There also may have been a cracked car window in the vicinity, which Cisco felt bad about, but his roommate was actually _the worst_. Like, if he turned out to be a supervillain someday, Cisco wouldn't be surprised. Fortunately, Hartley had ended up moving out at semester and Cisco had been left with no roommate for the rest of the year because sometimes the universe hated him but sometimes it paid him back in small ways, fuck yeah!

"I have a new one, too," Flash confessed. "You know my friend Firestorm?" Cisco nodded. "He and Killer Frost finally moved in together, so..."

"Nice!" Cisco said. "Congrats to them!"

"Yeah, they're really happy together—" Flash tipped his head, obviously catching the sound of the sirens now. "Anyway. Catch up more later?" He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Cisco's cheek, then he was gone, and Cisco was taking off himself even as he staved off a vibe with practiced ease. Bros didn't out superhero bros, so Cisco had made sure he figured out a way to block vibes off certain people if he wanted. It didn't always work, but unlike before he'd had his goggles, he could work around it – usually by shifting vibes to something else. So, for instance, right now he had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of his brother eating dinner out at a restaurant with his girlfriend, instead of seeing something of Flash that might not involve Flash with his hood up.

The thing with the Flash was that they were probably dating? As far as you could date when you never actually saw each other's faces. They had both wanted to keep their secret identities, and maybe since they were kinda-sorta-dating at this point they probably should tell each other, but Cisco at least – he liked being Vibe. He liked the easy camaraderie he had with the Flash and he liked the person he could be as Vibe. He wasn't sure if the Flash would like him as Cisco Ramon. And they hadn’t been dating that long, really. He'd been flirting with the Flash pretty much since day one, but it was only a few months ago that Flash had actually started reacting and flirting _back_.

They were in a weird dating area where they only really saw each other to fight crime and take down supervillains, or very occasionally take patrols together. Cisco had made comms for the two of them to share, so the Flash wouldn't have to worry about slowing down to match the speed Cisco's bike and they could split up to opposite sides of the city. That was it, though. The little contact that they had. Still. Cisco probably felt closer to the Flash than almost anyone else in his life.

If they ended up keeping on trying this dating thing for another month or two, Cisco would seriously consider telling the Flash his secret identity. Two years was long enough to be able to trust someone.

 

Cisco and Barry didn’t see each other all that often. Cisco was busy being Vibe a lot of the time, in between his classes and studying in the library, and even when he was in their dorm room, Barry often wasn’t there. Cisco wasn’t sure if he was going to parties or what, but Cisco had made a point to tell Barry when the two of them were introducing themselves at the beginning of the year that he had insomnia and nightmares, so he was up (and probably out of the room) during the night a lot. It was true, but it also gave him a good excuse to be missing so often.

Cisco could always tell when Barry had been by the dorm room. Barry’s side of the room was messy in a way that suggested always came running through at the last minute and dressed at high speed before rushing to class. It got a little messier every time he did it, until he apparently went on a cleaning spree while Cisco wasn’t there. Then it slowly fell prey to entropy again. If Barry had a girlfriend or something that he was spending all his time with, more power to him, but then why was he paying to live in a dorm?

Whatever. It wasn’t really any of his business.

It was a little sad, though. Cisco had hoped to have a better roommate situation than Hartley, and don’t get him wrong, Barry _was_ better than Hartley, but they also never saw each other. It was almost like living by himself, except he could never cut loose and starting singing along to _Wicked_ at the top of his lungs because if life with a brother had taught him anything, it was that Barry would show up during the middle of “Defying Gravity” and probably judge him.

Or maybe sing along, but Cisco hadn’t seen enough of him to scope out his musical predilections.

 

Then one day, Cisco _did_ see Barry.

“Holy shit, dude, are you okay?” Cisco asked. The door was unlocked when it usually wasn’t and Barry obviously hadn’t heard him coming. His shirt was hiked up and he was carefully flattening bandages against his torso, which had blood splashed all over it, only messily wiped away with the tissues and rubbing alcohol Cisco could see on Barry’s desk.

“I’m fine,” Barry said, dropping his shirt down immediately. He held up his hands a little, like, see? No injuries here!

Cisco was unimpressed. Barry winced as he followed the flick of Cisco’s eyes toward his desk and back.

“For real?” he asked. “That’s – you need to see someone about that. It looks bad.”

“I’ve had worse,” Barry said, low, and he probably hadn’t meant for Cisco to hear it. Cisco stuttered for a beat, not wanting to touch that implication with a ten foot pole, but he lived with the guy. He’d been living with him for almost two months now, and maybe they hadn’t seen a lot of each other, but Barry seemed like a pretty okay guy, as far as things went. Cisco had experience with judging the dregs of humanity out there on the streets, and whatever Barry might do in his free time, he wasn’t a bad person.

“Can I at least help you clean up?” Cisco asked eventually. He waved a hand at the desk. Barry struggled with the decision for a moment, but Cisco quickly said, “Look, I won’t tell anyone. I really think you should see a nurse, but I won’t say anything. I promise.”

Barry nodded slowly. Cisco saw him pulling up his shirt and start fiddling with his bandages out of his peripheral vision; Cisco ignored it and started gathering up bloody tissues when the vibe hit him.

It was so out of left field, so unexpected, that he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Without his goggles, he couldn’t easily shunt it off to another time or person, either. But for a moment he thought it had gone to someone else anyway.

The Flash was hit hard on his side by some kind of plasma weapon. He cried out sharply as he went rolling away, the asphalt obviously scraping painfully against the wound. The villain of the week starting laughing about it, but he was too busy gloating to see that the Flash was gritting his teeth and pulling himself to his feet. One lightning-wreathed sprint, and the villain was out cold from a single punch.

The Flash fell to one knee, hissing in pain, but jerked his head up again at the sound of sirens. He ran, and Cisco caught a glimpse of the college campus and their dorm before reality faded back in and he was in their dorm room again.

Cisco had seen the alert about the villain downtown, but he was in the middle of class. He’d already skipped to take care of meta attacks twice this month and he could in no way justify leaving while the lecture was ongoing. He had also seen the news report on his way back to the dorm that the Flash had taken care of it.

And he had just had a vision of the Flash taking care of it while touching the bloody tissues Barry was using to clean up his side. Even if Cisco hadn’t been as smart as he was, he could have easily put the pieces together.

“Oh my god,” Cisco said. Barry – the Flash, Cisco’s kind-of boyfriend – looked up from his side and focused on Cisco with familiar eyes. “Oh my god, we’ve been living together for two months, how did I not figure this out?”

Barry was looking edgy now.

“I’m almost literally psychic,” Cisco complained to the universe at large. “I was trying to be a considerate boyfriend. We could have been hooking up the whole time. I can’t _believe_ this.”

“Um,” Barry said, eyeing the door.

“No, I – look. I’m Vibe,” Cisco said, rubbing a hand over his face. “And you’re the Flash, which I only just figured out because I vibed off your terrible healing decisions, and you need to visit Killer Frost like you always say you will because that hit looked really painful.”


	5. Fake Dating

"What room is Cisco Ramon in?" Barry asked, rushing into the hospital. Cisco had been caught in the middle of a meta attack, swatted aside lazily by the meta while he was trying to help others caught up in it, and he hadn't been able to use his powers without outing himself as Vibe. Barry hadn't been fast enough to keep him from getting hurt in the first place, but he was one of the few people that had been truly hurt by the meta, and Barry was uncomfortably sure that Cisco would say it was worth it.

Even so, Barry needed to see him in the hospital.

"He's in room 208, but sir, it's family only," the nurse at the front desk said, obviously frazzled by the incoming patients of the meta attack on top of what was already a bad flu season. She barely even looked up at Barry, and he could understand that, he could, but—

"He's my best friend, my partner. Please, I have to see him," Barry said, desperate. He hated that Cisco was in the hospital. He hated that he wasn't back in STAR Labs, being taken care of by Caitlin.

The nurse bit her lip. "Your partner?" she asked. Barry winced. He hadn't meant to let that slip out, he was just so used to answering media questions about Vibe and Cisco took an unholy glee in the various and terrible jokes he could make after Barry called him that for the first time— "I suppose that's all right, then," she said, a little dubiously, but Barry was too grateful to question it too closely.

It was only when Barry was slipping into Cisco's room the next floor up that he realized just how the nurse may have misconstrued what he had said.

Cisco watched bemusedly as Barry softly hit his head against the door, groaning.

 

“How did you end up dating each other?”

“Oh,” Barry said, years later. He laughed a little. “I mean, he was my best friend for so long, after a certain point it just clicked…”

“He lied to a nurse at the hospital,” Cisco interjected. “He accidentally made it sound like he was my boyfriend and she took pity on him.”

“Cisco, I thought we agreed on the best friends story,” Barry hissed.

“I mean, the best friends thing is true, but the way you tell it means you always leave out the best part,” Cisco said, grinning.

Barry buried his head in his hands.


End file.
